The nation’s largest provider of integrated health insurance and health solutions humbly presented a full-year net profit before tax of $380 million, but expected premium increases to stay below the industry average.

Medibank Private managing director George Savvides said, “We expect to be able to stay around that base of being no worse than average if we can and hopefully below... because it's a bidding process and it's a negotiating process, but we certainly expect to see premium changes that aren't too different to what you've seen in the last three or four years.”

Savvides explained that advances in technology and an aging population are raising health care costs. The costs, he said, are putting pressure on premiums.

“It's a continual challenge to keep that under control and get the balance right, because at the end of the day we need customers who can afford the premiums as well as a revenue base that can afford the claims. We need both,' the managing director emphasized.

Medibank has reduced its management expense ratio to 8.9 percent for resident private health insurance business. Private health insurance membership grew by over 100,000 during the year and this brought the total membership to over 3.7 million people.